“Local grocers that survived Walmart are now falling to Dollar General.” Great new report by ILSR on how dollar stores are targeting low-income communities as America’s permanent underclass—and how Tulsa, OK is fighting back.

Uber is facing questions, after they “clarified” their policy on whether drivers can pick up unaccompanied minors (you can’t ride alone if you’re under 18, officially), by mentioning how it’s great that drivers can be there when parents can’t….

I have complicated feelings about a robot cafe, where the robots are controlled by people who are home-bound or physically disabled.

“It might stay for a long time because it’s a matter of ego,” he says. “The shutdown is biting.” How the federal government shutdown is affecting taxi, Uber & Lyft drivers in DC. (And of course, that isn’t even mentioning the increased competition as some government workers turn to driving as a side hustle to pay their own rent.)

At the end of last year, Uber drivers in London won a ruling against the company that will force them to treat drivers as workers, not contractors. And a French court just granted an Uber driver employment rights.

“That’s the thing they don’t tell you about opiate addiction. People are in pain because unless you went to college, the only way you’ll earn a decent living is by breaking your body or risking your life — plumbers, electricians, steamfitters, welders, mechanics, cable guys, linemen, fishermen, garbagemen, the options are endless.”An amazing first-person narration of what it’s like to be the cable guy, even when you’re not a guy.

Uber may be close to a settlement that pays drivers .11 per mile driven, in exchange for giving up their rights to pursue employee misclassification claims.

“Through 2016, our analysis found that between the time older workers enter the study and when they leave paid employment, 56 percent are laid off at least once or leave jobs under such financially damaging circumstances that it’s likely they were pushed out rather than choosing to go voluntarily.” ProPublica & the Urban Institute have concluded that workers over 50 are more likely to be pushed out of jobs than they are to leave them voluntarily, resulting in huge economic consequences.

Events

Want to up your digital game? Becker Strategies has announced dates for the three bootcamps they’ll be holding this year.

Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability

In the run-up to the holidays, Connecticut Lyft & Uber drivers staged a one-day strike. Let me know if you have contact with the folks who organized this!

It’s possible that the 21st Century “Battle in Seattle” that will most impact gig worker organizing, is the one being conducted around collective bargaining rights for ride-sharing drivers.

“Frankly, we should all be mad that the richest country in the world doesn’t care about workers’ well-being.” Well, yes. Welcome to the party, Digg.

“Hiring is rarely a single decision, but rather a series of smaller, sequential decisions that culminate in a job offer—or a rejection.” Upturn takes a look a bias in hiring algorithms.

If Facebook’s tracking you all over the web (even when you’re not logged on to their site) isn’t creepy enough, don’t worry. Now they want to track your physical location, so they can predict where you’ll go next (the gym—>coffee shop isn’t just me?).

Congrats to the NDWA (and in particular, friend-o-the-blog Palak Shah) on their launch of Alia, which allows clients of domestic workers to make contributions for paid time off and other portable benefits.

Here’s a cool data visualization of 206 of the 238 locations that put in bids for Amazon’s HQ2, thanks to Muckrock and journalists everywhere.

What’s Going on in the WorkforceBefore the fatal crash involving self-driving cars earlier this year, self-driving Uber test cars were apparently involved in an accident approximately ever 15,000 miles. I can’t imagine how expensive my car insurance would be, if that were me.

Google aims to compete with Amazon with highly automated warehouses (like, one hundred robots for every human). They’ve already started, in China.

Uber is back to testing self-driving cars in Pittsburgh, but some employees are anonymously worried that the company is cutting corners.

Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability

“After nine years, Uber isn’t within hailing distance of making money and continues to bleed more red ink than any start-up in history.” Well then.

h/t to Jay Youngdahl for pointing this one out: Grad students at UNC are conducting a grade strike, saying they won’t hand in students’ grades until the university reverses its plan to construct a new building to house racist Confederate memorial “Silent Sam.”

The Tech Workers’ Coalition is stepping up their demand for an end to forced arbitrations at work. Check out their new post, that describes where they’re going next. In a particularly timely coincidence, 12,000 Uber drivers just claimed that the company is denying them timely arbitration of their disputes.

‘I didn’t know what the union was for,’ he said, ‘but now I can see that it’s the thing that we have to take a collective stand for ourselves and for others. It gives us our voice.’ Read this fascinating description of how Australian call center workers rebuilt their union around solidarity—even non-workplace solidarity.

What’s Going on in the Workforce

The Independent Drivers’ Guild is claiming victory, as New York City’s TLC is proposing changes to minimum standards for driver pay that they claim will raise most drivers’ pay over $9,000 per year.

California State Assemblywoman Lorena Gonzalez is introducing a bill to codify the ABC test for independent contractors into state law (recently the CA Supreme Court issued the Dynamax decision, which used the ABC test—but gig economy companies have been lobbying politicians to overturn it legislatively).

You maybe remember I wrote a piece about how worker organization will need to develop tools & skills to manage online reputation, a few years ago. If you need more impetus to do that, check out this creepy story about AI-crawling of babysitters’ social media pages, and rating them as appropriate caregivers. (If you didn’t want your teenaged daughter to post selfies, why did you give her a phone?)

CityLab takes a look at how corporate America—particularly big box stores—is fighting paying property taxes through “dark store theory,” which compares the value of stores that are open to ones that have shuttered, instead of other open stores.

Do we really have to wait till the end of the century to shorten the working week to four days? Please say no.

Fast food chains are hiring more senior citizens than young adults, and Bloomberg is cheering them on.

Amazon is moving to directly hire delivery drivers this holiday season, instead of contenting to subcontract that work (or use the postal service more).

Uber has been fined over $1 million in CA for failing to suspend drivers, after riders complained about them driving while intoxicated.

Walmart is joining the AI-focused retail trend, and will open a “retail lab” in an existing store in NY.

The Australian Ride Share Drivers Association says that more than 50% of drivers quit driving for apps within three months, because the pay isn’t worth it. (With a turnover rate like that, maybe the industry should invest in job improvements?)

Organizing Theory

The ED of Action Network, on how they partnered with OUR, Change to Win, and the AFL-CIO to build a technology tool informed by what organizers need.

You probably saw that nearly 20,000 Google employees walked out last week, from offices all over the world. Here are the organizers, on what their demands are.

“You’re not an Amazon driver if you haven’t run a stop sign.” On the workers who AREN’T getting $15/hour, in Amazon’s new pay regime.

If, like me, you’re annoyed by stores playing Christmas music before December 1st, imagine what it’s like to work in one of those stores.

Sharing, Solidarity & Sustainability

“The fact that we’re able to put the technology in the hands of people with a low income–that is really a useful way of resisting this weaponization of income,” so says the founder of an app that is helping people apply for citizenship.

It’s been a hell of a week in America, but the thing that has me personally reeling the most is the news that my friend and longtime coworker Cathy Brady passed away unexpectedly at the end of last week. Cathy was one of the most bad-ass organizers I ever knew, a working class hero who broke boundaries for women in at least three industries. Juliana Reyes from the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote a beautiful piece about her work, including her fight to build America’s first labor monument, in Southwest Philly. Read it here, and then, if you have some scratch, kick down a few bucks for Cathy’s memorial.

A correction from last week’s newsletter—the local president who wrote that great piece about ICE boarding Greyhound was from the ATU, not the TWU.

If a restaurant doesn’t serve customers food in their actual restaurant, is it actually a restaurant? I’ve recently heard these called “ghost kitchens” but that name doesn’t really work for me, either. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-10-24/uber-s-secret-empire-of-virtual-restaurants

Being a poultry processor is about to get worse, as the Trump Administration relaxes safety rules. Because being a poultry worker was such an incredibly safe job, before. http://www.foodandpower.net/2018/10/25/workers-fear-injury-as-administration-clears-way-for-faster-chicken-slaughter/

I really want to make a joke about how you need human intelligence, to be able to appreciate artificial intelligence, and that’s why the Trump Administration is losing the AI war to China. But it’ll make me sad, so maybe I’ll just go text some more voters instead.